Classic British Flight Sim

Two words: Do it!

I went through a similar dilemma a few years ago. I decided to stick to my guns and believe in myself, now I've written for the BBC and have twelve plays under my belt. Don't get me wrong, it's been bloody hard work and I don't make enough from my writing to quit the day job, but just being able to call myself a writer has done wonders for my self-esteem and confidence. I'm really proud of what I've achieved through my writing in a life which is, frankly, low on accomplishments in other areas. So, yes, go for it! I promise, you won't regret it. What's the worst that could happen? Good luck

Many thanks to all of you who have replied, I have spent the whole week-end reading and making alterations to the first chapter or rather Day One.

Still I think it needs more refining but would certainly weelcome your comments be it good or bad, the only way to learn is from other peoples' views.

One thing to be wary of, is alienating readers by becoming too inward looking and producing work that only those who have worked in the industry can appreciate.

Kevin, thank you very much for that sound advice. I have in the first part of my writing tried to explain in laymans terms the the gears of the Mercedes Truck and also of the tachograph and very briefly how it operates. The digital tacho came into force for new HGV's 1 May 2006 and as I have no experience of it I have kept the story line to early 1990's when mobile phones became prominent in use though these did not have SMS as the first commercial SMS message was sent over the Vodafone GSM network in the UK on 3rd December 1992 from Neil Papworth on a personal computer to Richard Jarvis using an Orbitel 901 handset. The message read "Happy Christmas". Equally there were by the end of 1984 300,000 users worldwide with mobile phones. As for your question of green trucks no..... I started with British Road Services and then moved to Tankfreight of which both companies belonged to National Freight until privatisation but that is another story! BTW, if I am persuaded to carry on there is a UK Truck Drivers' Forum and will most probably contact them to see if they would be willing to send me interesting or amusing stories of their time on the road to incorporate into the book so it really becomes more fact than fiction!!

Sleeping in an unheated cab in a layby in the middle of nowhere might have been less than thrilling at the time but it was a skill in itself and it was what you did "in those days".

Oh dear Paulsl, now I am thinking would it be better to write the book where sleeper cabs were not used, it would certainly bring in more ideas however, I can always incorporate a couple of trucks without them before being replaced with new models so many thanks for that idea, brilliant!

I went through a similar dilemma a few years ago. I decided to stick to my guns and believe in myself, now I've written for the BBC and have twelve plays under my belt.

Swanoir (sorry cannot remember your name) Since I started writing about six years ago it was and still is a hard slog, an idea in the way of a story line appears in my mind but it takes me maybe one whole day to get a page written, grammer being one and the other trying to make the story line more interesting than the first attempt and re-arranging the sequence of events, I have tried to flow between drivers and other characters so the story line flows along without jumping leaving the reader unsure of what has or is happening, equally I am only involving x amount of characters, too many can cause a few problems.

Peter, Joe, Mike and all who I have not yet acknowledged, many, many thanks for your encouragement.

I have started a new thread so that you can read the first part then comment before I post the second part on Wedneesday.

Kind regards
Nigel.